I've been short sighted and wearing glasses since I was 7 or 8. All well and good, I could see from 6 inches to infinity with my specs on, and even closer without them.
When I was about 45 I was told that I would need reading glasses which added insult to injury. With my specs on, I could see every brick in a distant building, but I had to hold things further and further away to read them. Having one pair in your pocket and one pair on your face was manageable. I tried varifocals soon after and didn't get on with them. I had quite a strong prescription for distance viewing, and the affordable technology at the time meant that the part you had to look through for distance was very restricted.
I worked out that for general use I could manage with a slightly weaker prescription for distance which made focusing on closer objects easier. This meant that I had reading glasses, general purpose glasses, and full prescription glasses for night driving or occasions when I needed pin sharp far distance vision. It got to be a bit of a faff remembering where the other two pairs were though I generally managed quite well with the intermediate glasses. As time went by I needed different glasses as my distance vision actually improved as I got older.
I was finally tempted back to varifocals by a deal an an optician's -money back in 30 days if you didn't like them. I had been considering bifocals until that point. They were much easier to get on with than my long ago ones and after a while I adapted to them. This doesn't answer the OP's question, but I suspect the answer is going to be bifocals or varifocals. Or maybe, as an interim measure to stave off the inevitable for a few more years, a slightly weaker prescription in contact lenses (as I previously did with glasses) to use for cycling until you actually have to submit to the dreaded glasses. It could be that the lenses you need could be fitted to some stylish wrap round cycling specs, so you wouldn't need to admit to wearing glasses as such. But that is another thread.
Perhaps you need a long wheelbase recumbent. Then you can mount your Garmin far enough away to be able to read it!
While I was going through all my phases in adapting to various glasses I did ask my optician to confirm that I would be OK to drive and he said that my vision would still be well above the standard for driving. He implied that my vision with glasses was better than most of the population if only for the reason that as a glasses wearer I had regular tests, while most people can have gradually deteriorating vision without realising it unless something occurs to prompt them to have their eyes tested. I find that quite worrying, and it adds a new meaning to the phrase, "sorry mate, I didn't see you".
A recumbent related drawback I've found with varifocals is that if your bike has a well reclined seat, since the close vision section of your specs is at the bottom, your forward vision will be out of focus. Perhaps well reclined recumbent riders would benefit from snooker players' specs in reverse. Fortunately it seems that I'm better suited to more upright seating arrangements, so that's one less thing to worry about.
